I originally posted this in the New Comics thread but it seems that it would be more appropriate in this thread:

The owner of my LCS posted on social media that he'll keep the store open as long as he can afford to pay his two employees (of course with reduced days open). He also said even if he has to close the store, it will be short term. He finished by saying that the store has been open 32 years and has survived things like the Distributor Wars, Marvel's Bankruptcy, the Black and White Boom and Bust, etc... The store still has back issues, trades, games and just a sense of community that people come for. One of the guys told me that people were calling to ask how to help. The store may see some changes once it's all over but it's nice to see some positivity amidst all the doom and gloom.

I think a lot of people are optimistic and I hope they are right. I see this going till the end of May. How many shops can hold out for that long?

Worse yet, there is a tipping point. At some point there are so few shops around, that it ceases to be profitable for Diamond to distribute. And remember neither Disney or AT&T bought companies to publish comics. They just got saddled with it.

The sad part is, IMO, the publishers started the industry towards this cliff years ago. Retailers, who should have banded together, just accepted it:

Only one distributor Getting rid of the conics codeGetting rid of the newsstandMaking content for an older aging audiencecomics being non-returnable

Now while obviously some new readers will find their way, comics made really, really hard for them to be found. When they did, a kid could no longer just safely grab the latest issue. My son wanted to get a new Batman comic during Snyder DEATH OF THE FAMILY run. As young as he was, I'd be a bad father giving him that book. So, he never really showed interest again after being told, no, it's too grown up for him.You have had to go a dedicated shop. Now over the last decade, you have had a dedicated app but then the content changed and many of the aging fanboys walked away.To make up for the lack of copies sold, publishers put it on the backs of retailers to carry a ton of product. Shops are carrying so many books. There is just a glut of bad or subpar comics. Marvel alone, not counting the $1.00 reprints and $3.99 facsimiles still shipped oved 80 titles last month.

Honestly, I've seen the direct market dying of a thousand cuts for a while. COVID-19 appears to have turned it into a stabbing.In the end, I hope the optimists are right and we get a leaner, healthier market that puts its eye on long term viability and not just short term gain. I'd love to be proven wrong.

Disney is losing so much money on shuttered theme parks and unreleased movies that nothing is a sure bet.

Kevin Feige recently being named Chief Creative Officer could help - his advocacy could keep Marvel publishing alive.

I don't think monthy comics are long for this world, but Marvel will keep it going because of comic book reader and dealer online presence. They have an outsized voice, and a wholesale shutdown wpuld generate horrible fan press and lead to alienating the shrinking base.

I do think this is publisher's chance to print less monthly books and start to move towards new, longform stories being printed straight to trade paperback.

I am much more concerned about the survival of the smaller companies than I am about Marvel and DC. As has already been observed, they are the ones who are probably going to be hardest hit. What concern I actually do have for Marvel and DC is for the freelancers & production staff are going to lose work or get laid off.

The majority of the comic books I've been reading in the last decade have been from outside the Big Two. Image Comics, Dark Horse, IDW, Fantagraphics, and so on. I feel there is much more diversity of product coming out through them, as well as work for all the creators who don't fit whatever the current formulas that editorial or management or whoever at Marvel and DC favor. To cite the example most relevant to this forum, most (all?) of John Byrne's work over the past decade has been published by IDW.

I'm also concerned for the comic shops. Hopefully the ones that are actually run well and have good, professional customer service will survive.

Totally agreed that having one distributor for the direct market is insanely stupid, but much of the blame for that can be laid at the feet of Marvel's mid 1990s owners.

"Additionally, because we anticipate that continued disruption to business operations will create regional volatility, DC is exploring a multi-distributor model to provide us with the flexibility needed during this crisis to get new content to our readers on an ongoing basis. In the short-term, we continue to engage in active conversations with Diamond to help us solve the distribution issues that have arisen and hope to get new product to stores that want or need it as soon as possible. We will provide additional information about how we'll make that happen in the coming days."

WESTFIELD COMICS (in Wisconsin, where I get my monthly shipments) just issued their weekly e-mail to customers: "As the coronavirus known as COVID-19 impacts the country it also has impacted the comic world and Westfield Comics. Here at the Westfield warehouse operations we are working hard to find ways to best serve all of you who may be stuck at home while we wait out this pandemic. For the safety of our customers and staff, in accordance with orders from the Wisconsin Governor, we have closed our two retail stores. We, unfortunately, have had to cut back on the warehouse staff as well. As we try to limit the impacts of these changes to you there may be some issues that you might notice, notably staff to handle phone calls and a longer response time for email. The publishers and distributors in the industry have halted distribution of any new items after this week (items released on 3/25) for at least two weeks, perhaps longer. We still have items in our warehouse for our current pre-order customers and plan to send those out as scheduled. There is no new product arriving at our warehouse for the next two weeks, minimum.

We are continuing to send back issues, newly released (from the last 4-6 weeks) Current Issues and any backlist books that we have in stock. We are also adding the stock of newly released from our retail stores to our site as fast as we can.

Because of decreasing availability from Dimond Distribution we have, hopefully, temporarily removed all storage supplies from our site. All current release, back issue and backlist orders will pay the normal postage charges and be sent ASAP. They cannot be sent with your next Pre-Order shipment as has been the case in the past. As soon as we start shipping Pre-Orders again this option will be restored.

I've been preaching (along with many others) for years and years that the publishers, especially DC and Marvel, had to break Diamond's monopoly on distribution. I could not understand how such a model was beneficial to the publishers, especially in the long term. But, sadly, nearly all businesses these days, in and out of the comics industry, are all about short term gains at the expense of long-term health. The chickens have come home to roost.

If I were Marvel or DC (or the companies that own them) as part of my risk management plan. I would have already considered possible alternatives based on the eventuality of losing a sole source vendor. In this case, I would likely set up at least a temporary relationship with a magazine distributor that can handle large range and scale. Personally, I'm thinking TNG, who handles Barnes and Noble's publication distributions. There is a likelihood that it could require multiple distributors. I have no doubt that there have been many over the years that have held meetings with the various publishers, trying to get in the door and get a piece of that business. There could be a lapse in delivery during a transition period, but it shouldn't have to be long. As Marvel or DC, I would likely continue to put out content digitally, because it would still provide a revenue stream and keep people talking about my product, which is really the best marketing.